That'll Do, Moss - Hardcover

Levin, Betty

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060005319 ISBN 13: 9780060005313

Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 2002

Synopsis

During the summer that Diane lives with a family as their babysitter, she works to establish rapport with the border collie Moss as everyone tries to cope with several crises.

About this title

About the Author:

Betty Levin is the author of many popular books for young people, including The Banished; Look Back, Moss; Away to Me, Moss; Island Bound; Fire in the Wind; and The Trouble with Gramary. Betty Levin has a sheep farm in Lincoln, Massachusetts, where she also raises and trains sheepdogs. In Her Own Words...

"I started writing stories almost as soon as I began to read. They were derivative and predictable-as much a way of revisiting characters and places in books I loved as it was a means of self-expression. I don't remember when words and their use became important. In the beginning was the story, and for a long time it was all that mattered.

"Even though I always wrote, I imagined becoming an explorer or an animal trainer. This was long before I had to be gainfully employed. It wasn't until after I'd landed in the workplace, first in museum research and then in teaching, that I returned to story writing-this time for my young children. Then a fellowship in creative writing at the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College gave me and my storymaking a chance. One affirmation led to another, and now there are books-and some readers.

"When I talk with children in schools and libraries, I realize that child readers are still out there. When they get excited about a character or a scene, a new dimension opens for them, a new way of seeing and feeling and understanding.

"Of course there is always one child who asks how it feels to be famous and to be recognized in supermarkets. I explain that the only people who recognize me are those who have seen me working my sheep dogs or selling my wool at sheep fairs. That response often prompts another query: Why write books if they don't make you rich and famous? I usually toss that question back at the children. Why do they invent stories? How does story writing make them feel?

"Eventually we explore the distinction between wanting to be a writer and needing to write. If we want to write, then we must and will. Whether or not we become published authors, we all have tales to tell and stories to share. Literature can only continue to grow from the roots of our collective experience if children understand that they are born creative and that all humans are myth users and storytellers."

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-8-Border collie Moss returns in his third book, which does not stand alone. Diane is baby-sitting for the summer for the Pragers, who have taken the dog in. When rabies is found in the area, they must kill their lambs, which might have been exposed. Upset, one of their sons runs away. When Diane and Moss locate him, they see that he is injured, and she goes for help. In the meantime, one of the neighbors finds him and severely hurts the dog because he defends the boy so aggressively. While the human characters and dialogue are realistic, Moss never comes to life. The fact that the searcher slams and nearly kills him with a pipe seems gratuitous and shocking. The incident appears to exist only so that Diane can then take responsibility for Moss, thus making him "her dog." If readers of the earlier titles can stand seeing him hurt again so that another child can learn to trust herself, they will read this one. Others can pass on it.
Sally Bates Goodroe, formerly at Harris County Public Library, Houston, TX
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Greenwillow Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0060005319
• ISBN 13: 9780060005313
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 128